By JOEL MORENO, KOMO-TV

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The paper trail has come to an end for the Seattle P-I, but thousands of its newspaper racks still litter the city's landscape.

All over town are the duo of paper boxes -- the blue Seattle Times box offering a digest of daily news, the red P-I boxes empty and collecting rust. Since the P-I's final paper editions were printed last week, the racks have had nothing to do.

The Seattle Times is responsible for the boxes. The paper has been collecting thousands of the boxes from as far as Eastern Washington.

But the story's still being written on whether the racks will be sold for scrap metal, turned into souvenirs or something else.

"Well, now, it's a bit of blight," said Glenn Fleishmann. "I think they should turn it into a Coke machine or, you know, put candy in it. You could make a lot more money."

"Gosh, maybe Starbucks can find a way of selling coffee out of them. Now they can have a Starbucks in front of everything," said Mel Nordberg.

But would people carry enough quarters to buy a $4 latte? The question is beside the point. City code leaves no doubt the racks have got to go.

Under title 15, the transportation director has the authority to "impound newsstands left in place more than ten days after the publisher discontinues publication." And time is just about up.

Souvenirs or scrap metal, the boxes' departure from the city's sidewalks will punctuate the end of an era for the historic Seattle P-I.

The Times hopes to have all the racks removed in about a month.The boxes that are bolted into sidewalks will take longer.